Another World - 20th Anniversary Edition Review

If you want a cinematic, oblique, thought-provoking and relatively short-lived experience in the modern gaming age, digital stores such as the eShop and more notably Steam have plenty of content on offer. Independent developers — and bigger publishers that release smaller projects as downloads — now find it easier than ever to share their work with the world, so story-driven, challenging titles are in plentiful supply across various platforms. Another World: 20th Anniversary Edition brings a hugely successful retail 2D adventure of the early '90s to the modern audience, yet it truly belongs in the download realm in this era.

The title starts with a rather slick cinematic, which itself was a revelation when first released on systems such as Amiga, Sega Mega Drive / Genesis and SNES, with a trendy, flame-haired Professor driving to a futuristic science lab in his Ferrari. It's classic '90s cool, as our un-named hero is welcomed into his secured facility by a chatty computer system which dutifully initiates an experiment that vaguely resembles the Hadron Collider and chills with a drink. Natural weather events — you guessed it, lightning — cause something to go wrong and you suddenly find yourself transported to another world, the source of that iconic title — although it's worth noting that the game was known as Out Of This World in North America.

There's no explanation beyond this, and that sets in motion the key aspect of this title. There are no hints or tips — even the digital manual reveals nothing about controls — and you're left to explore this strange landscape, with the story being a chain of events that can be interpreted in various ways. Our spoiler-free interpretation is that the world in question isn't far away from Earth in terms of the behaviour of its inhabitants, in this case portraying a cruel, intolerant side of our nature. With an on-off companion, you're trying to escape a prison and then your pursuers; you don't know why you were captured, who you're running from or where your friend is guiding you, yet you run anyway.

The controls are simple — A to run or as an action button, B to jump — and you pick up a gun, early on, that's used for combat. The gun has three phases; a tap is a normal shot, a brief hold and release generates a temporary shield, and a longer hold and release fires a more powerful shot, though drains the gun's energy. It's explained in a 'Help' menu that we initially missed — the digital manual says nothing — so could be an aspect some will figure out through trial and error.

This is, ultimately, all about that trial and error. Each 'scene' is barely 1-2 minutes long if you know what you're doing, but can take far longer than that while you figure out the winning strategy. There is typically only one way to progress, and on occasion the solutions can seem a tad obscure, such as blasting a hole in a rather sturdy wall. For first-time players that resist the allure of walkthroughs, the right move may seem downright unintuitive at times, and critics of this title can certainly suggest that it's padding for a game that, for experienced players that know the answers, can be quite easily beaten in well under an hour. It's safe to say those experiencing it for the first time will need much longer to get to the end credits.

Another World is a particularly tricky game to navigate, with instant deaths often coming as a shock, some gun fights that call for precise timing and positioning, and puzzles that require you to backtrack against all expectation. That said, it's all intricately designed, meaning you can't get stuck in a loop or trapped with no way out; if your character is stuck in an area, it's safe to say you can interact with something, blast a part of the environment or tackle an enemy. In addition, as you progress there'll be clever moments in which your movement and actions are completely different to the norm, taking you out of your comfort zone. Your biggest challenge is maintaining your patience, though a death will put you back just a few screens on most occasions.

This is, in a sense, a precursor to 2D 'art' puzzle adventures of the day. The key to the experience is in its atmosphere, in the subtle visual cues that tell the story. Should its aesthetic and setting grab your attention, it will drag you forward in your eagerness to see what happens next, to see what the next area brings. The smooth, almost cel-shaded look combines with pitch-perfect audio — again, in terms of retro sensibilities — to make it a memorable journey.

All of what we've said could apply to the SNES original, though this 20th Anniversary Edition does include new features that bring us some fan-service. The 'HD' visuals are welcome in that they smooth out the original engine, and you can press Y at any point to switch between the visual eras; it's a nice touch, and shows that the developers have basically smoothed out jaggy lines and added subtle background effects. It's not a remaster — that should be made clear — and the high definition visuals actually represented what our minds-eye expected of the original graphics, though a press of Y soon wiped out that impression.

Other additions come in the form of three difficulty settings; normal is rather challenging and was our choice, while easy didn't make environmental challenges or puzzles more accessible, but took the edge of some teeth-grindingly awkward gun fights. In addition you can switch between remastered, original and 'original + console music' sound — remastered still sounds retro but is cleaner, better balanced and less distorted than the original option. As for the final option of console music, this relates to the music introduced on some systems such as SNES, as one example, and in our view is a fun alternative — less atmospheric and polished than the developer's original effort, yes, but enjoyable on additional playthroughs. Another bonus is that, in each difficulty level, you can jump into any scene you've previously reached at any time, whereas in the 'good old days' you would have messed around with codes.

Those are welcome enhancements, and the argument can be made that they show a deserved reverence and respect for the source material. An alternative perspective is that they're rather quick, easy tweaks, and at times the fluidity of animation and movement — which were impressive at the time — can feel awkward and fiddly by modern standards. This Wii U port is, also, a lazy one. The title looks and sounds lovely, yet the only way to play is with the GamePad — you do not have the option of using any other controller. The touch screen doesn't work in menus, for example, though the visuals do look good on the softer, lower resolution GamePad screen, as well as on the TV.

Conclusion

Another World: 20th Anniversary Edition brings us a definitive version of a '90s classic, and a 2D adventure that can be argued to be one of the forebears of the modern 'artistic indie' trend. Its minimalist approach and aesthetic style fit the modern download scene well, and Éric Chahi's creation is as engrossing and irresistible as ever in the hands of a motivated, engaged player. That said, innovation in the '90s is par for the course now, and some will find the trial and error nature of the puzzles and challenges frustrating, along with some fairly stiff controls. This is not an experience for everyone, though we'd suggest that those with a love of adventure games and the download scene should take this one on; it's an important part of gaming history and an education for serious gamers.

From the web

Welsh ex-pat Tom is responsible for the day-to-day running of the site. He's the guy to thank for the generally brilliant nature of the content which massages your eyeballs on a daily basis. Also has an unhealthy obsession with all things Bowser.

I think this is going to be cross buy on PSN (so says Push Square), would have been good if Wii U / 3DS version was. I'll finally get to play Another World anyway, its one I'd always meant to get on the Megadrive but never got around to.

Just found out that this is a 'CROSS-BUY' game on PS3/Vita meaning i pay once and get both versions 'which i'l do' once again showing that Nintendo's eco system sucks seeing as the dev is the same and yet you have to pay TWICE if you want it on 3DS aswell.

If you want to waste space downloading this overhyped tripe TWICE because you thought a Vita looked like a well informed purchase, then do so. But I wouldn't speak so loudly about either things. Beating Aban Hawkins, multiple times, without dying, that's something to be proud of.

@CaptainProtonX It's not just Sony though, Apple has this same service and I'm sure if Xbox had a portable device they'd offer the same service. I totally agree with XyVoX, the eshop is lovely but so behind in customer service and software protection. Which is weird since they push digital downloading like it's candy.

I tried this on my android tablet, and it was fun. However, I was very unhappy about the touch controls, and stopped playing it because of that reason. Now with a good controller, I think I'll try ths title again.

I recently played the SNES version at a friends house, and even though I got so ticked off at it and found the controls a bit stiff, I still enjoyed what I played. The graphics would look primitive by today's standards for sure, but like the original Star Fox I appreciate the visual style because for its time it looked amazing. With all of that said, I'm seriously considering this. Great review!

@sinalefa well in the 90's we had quite a few of these type of games like flashback, black thorne and one of my favorite: Heart of Darkness (game would do great on the 3DS as a download title i wonder if it could render the original Outcast) But the abe games are quite large have deeper gameplay and more fluid controls and a more clearcut story. but this in the 90's being a one man project it's more of a gaming history novelty these days yet still an interesting game to play.

@CaptainProtonX Super Dodge Ball is a perfect example of how being a Nintendo fan can suck. This is a perfect game for playing on the 3ds but I'd also see myself playing this on my WiiU. Sadly that convenience shall never be with Nintendo unless I want to pay twice. It's a shame.

More moaning, cross buy this cross buy that, are a certain portion of nintendo gamers intrinsically moaners or what? Just buy it on another system then! I have a wii u and 3ds and couldnt care less if its cross buy or not, i'll just buy it on the platform im more likely to play it on.I bet half off those moaning about cross buy wouldnt even use the feature anyway.

I was somehow never made aware of this game back in the '90s, and only first heard about it a few short years ago. I guess that's because it was only ported to consoles after its original release, and I mainly kept up with consoles in the '90s.

Damn, I regret I saw a speedrun of this game few months ago, this game would have been an interesting experience without knowing what I was getting into... but who would ever expect such an old game, I never heard of, to show around again? >.>;

Dearie me, taking someone saying something critical (but entirely fair) about your chosen company so badly? How old are you?

I like Nintendo and I want them to do better. This means pointing it when they do things right and when they do them wrong. If a competitor is offering a better deal then I'll say so rather than stick my head in the sand and unthinkingly, blindly accept whatever Nintendo (or indeed any other company) offer. If you can't cope with such trauma then stick to the official Nintendo site where the nasty internet can't say anything nasty.

@Morph but it IS fair to note competitor practices and deals, etc. physical stores do it all the time. They watch competitors, make market adjustments, some store offer to meet a competitors price or coupon, etc.

One easy example- I feel bad for people who bought Angry Bird Trilogy for $30-40 (depending on platform). Getting the oldest games in that series, which retail on mobile for $1-3 bucks each...when they aren't being given away for free. The only reason I didn't impulse buy Plants vs Zombies on my Vita is that they wanted $15 and it was $3 on iPad with a free sequel alongside it,

In this case, it's fair to note that Sony is giving a free backup copy, or in general that PSNs account-based system is more lenient than eShops device-based system. If you go on a PSP and buy Final Fantasy VII, you can download that on any compatible registered system with your account. So you can play on your tv with PS3, and transfer if you upgrade to a vita. If you even just bought a new PSP you could just manage the actives in your main account, and then download your content. When I bought my 3DS XL, I had to transfer content directly from the old system to new. Buying Ninja Gaiden on VC doesn't put it in my VC account for Nintendo- I'd have to rebuy it to play on Wii or Wii U VC. I don't understand why they are separate services when the whole concept is legacy preservation. Nobody wants to buy Zelda 1 three times, come on. I haven't bought my son his own system because he's been sharing mine. We have digital games. Mario 3D Land, for example - I'm not paying another $40 for it, so he can't play it on another system. I wish I'd bought it physical so he could. As it stands, hat copy is locked to one 3DS, so it remains the community 3DS unit for the house. If their system was more in line with, well, every other company , I'd have bought him a 2DS by now.

It's cheaper on Sony platforms, it's cheaper on iOS, it's cheaper on Android, it's cheaper on Steam and if it's the same price on Xbox that's still a very slightly better deal as it's at least not tied to hardware. If it's more expensive on Xbox I'd expect people to be complaining.

Your original point was criticising people for 'moaning', I'm saying they've got reason.

Is this game called Another World or Cross-buy? With the amount of talk on here about the later, you'd think people forgot to talk about the game.

Anyway, Let's see if I get a relevant response to this. If I want to play this game and have it in a format that is known as Nintendo's eshop and on their hardware, because I choose to of my own free will and without instantly being judged as "duped" or "fanatical", how is the game?

@electrolite77 and i'm saying they haven't. The pricing versus any of those platforms is nothing to do with Nintendo for a kick off so any of those complaints should be directed to the publisher. What's the price on Sony platforms?

It seems strange to me to complain about something you know to be the case already, we know nintendo doesn't do cross buy yet so why complain about it.

The device-locked vs unified account system IS Nintendo's "fault." They've also acknowledged it a number of times and claim to be working on it.

I don't know why people are getting so huffy about it. I think this is a neat game. I may skip this release, as I have it on ios. Is someone going to get offended now that I'm not throwing money at the eshop, or am I allowed as a consumer and fellow online commentator to say my personal choice without someone getting all defensive?

So because something is known, you shouldn't complain about it? Have you really thought that through?

@dereq So the Sony versions being Cross Buy and the Nintendo versions not and this being consistently the case is not Nintendo's fault? The other versions being tied to an Account and Nintendo's being tied to hardware and this always being the case, is that Nintendo's fault?

Nintendo's digital offering is not very consumer-friendly. Seriously guys, I'm sure Nintendo appreciate the wriggling attempts to deflect blame from them, but that's how it is.

Sorry if that sounds whiney. It's just odd to me, as a multiple device owning person who frequents different sites, to see the defensive lockdown. If a game comes out in regular/HD apps for ios (meaning, two separate apps to buy if you want iPhone and iPad versions), this is noted in most reviews. The Universal build is much more common those days, and even Square Enix has adopted it (they were notorious for putting out two expensive apps rather than a universal until recently). In Nintendo's case, that's not even in the infrastructure as a possibility. Even if the publisher wanted to, they couldn't offer you a 3DS code for buying the Wii U version. I think VC is the most glaring, having to buy, rebuy, "upgrade" the same 20-30 yr old games repeatedly. In the case of a release like this, people will discuss value. And this will include deals on other platforms. If someone says they want a 360 game, and I see it on Steam flash sale, I'm going to let them know. Especially if it's a title that doesn't go on sale on Xbox. Am I insulting Microsofts entire business model, or just being a good consumer?

@electrolite77 no you can complain about it if you want but it puzzles me why you would, it's completely futile. We all knew there wouldn't be any sort of cross-buy before it was announced because that's not how nintendo operate at the moment, would it have made it better if they had only released it on 1 of the nintendo platforms, then we wouldn't be having this conversation. People would just be moaning instead that it wasn't on wii u or wasn't on 3ds. Should I start moaning that Pullblox world isn't on 3ds, even though the first two were, or that it isn't cross-buy even though the title doesn't exist on 3ds. Nintendo do things their own way and on their own terms, they'll get round to an account system when they are happy with it and we may get cross buy then, until then i'm not going to moan about it because it achieves nothing, my advice would be just buy the game on your platform of choice and enjoy it.

To be honest that's terrible advice. According to you there's no point saying anything because it won't change anything? That's one in the eye for history that's for sure.

Also a statement that doesn't reflect very well on Nintendo as a company if they ignore their customers like you say. You sit on your hands and accept if you want. Myself and others will do the heavy lifting by spending money elsewhere and letting them know. Now, I wonder which is best for Nintendo and it's customers? My advice to you is if you don't like discussion of what Nintendo are doing and where they fall short on a Nintendo fan site, to ignore it and play your games in blissful unawareness...

I suppose if one ONLY values money in all of life, then yes, looking ONLY at price to determine action makes sense.

There are also those who value other things in life such as tactile quality, ability to share in community/family, audio quality as relates to the system hooked up to, not to mention supporting certain business practices and encouraging certain values exemplified in certain companies. If none of that sort matters to an individual, then I can see why price can dictate purchasing behavior.

@electrolite77 i'm clearly not talking about every situation throughout history, i'm talking about this particular issue. Whether it reflects well on Nintendo is moot, they will do their own thing the way they always have. Do you honestly think your 'heavy lifting' over a third party download only title will make a jot of difference? Of course it won't. Like I said before, Nintendo are aware of fans wanting an account based system which might feature things like cross buy, but it's not here yet and it'll be here when they are ready to do it, which in all likelihood won't be at least until the next handheld comes out. Whether you choose to buy this particular title on a Nintendo platform or not will not make an iota of difference to that.

So, if by your own admission they are aware of fans wanting a better Account system, how do you think they became aware of it? Because of customers telling them it isn't good enough. Saying it will be fixed is meaningless to all but the very naive, until it's fixed then people are going to continue to tell them it isn't good enough.

Further, it isn't just about this one game, this one game is another representation of the issue, that's why it comes up so often. It's absurd to claim that a consumer electronics company doesn't care about missing out on revenue. That's the thing they care about the most.

@electrolite77I'm afraid you're making the mistake in assuming all people who buy things behave and think the exactly the way you do.

I suppose if one ONLY values money in all of life, then yes, looking ONLY at price to determine action makes sense. But for people, saving a few bucks is not the only thing that has value in the world.

@electrolite77 no they are aware of it because other companies offered it first, and then yes of course after that people have suggested it, but they already know about it and have acknowledged that it may be something they will look at in future. Nintendo by their own admission were much later to the online party than sony and microsoft so they have been playing catch up to an extent. They appear to be rectifying these issues, but like i keep saying - in their own time.

As for revenue, does it really lose them that much? I'm not so sure, asside from virtual console i cant think of that many titles on both 3ds and wii u. It may become a bigger issue with the next consoles, but at the minute id hardly call cross buy a deal maker or breaker for many people

@electrolite77Did you even read my comment? I said nothing about cross-buy at all, I agree that N needs to introduce such a program. But no, Nintendo does not set prices of third party games on the eShop, that's why devs can put their games on sale whenever they want. FACT. And why doesn't anyone talk about the cons of account based systems? Someone could steal your username/password and take all your games. As it is, you would have to break into my house to steal my games/systems, and they're covered by insurance. I can't insure an online account.

No I'm expressing my opinion. Which it seems to be controversial to some.

You're making the assumption that how a person decides where they purchase a piece of video game software-a piece of consumer produce nobody actually needs-in any way relates to how motivated by money they are in any other walk of life. It's a bizarre but amusing attempt at an analogy.

@Sampras you implied that the argument being made was purely about price, and listed other factors that may matter to a buyer. Among them, you mentioned supporting certain business practices. I (admittedly in a sarcastic tone, tho no offense was meant) was pointing out that this is precisely why we speak out about that. Again I refer to Square Enix on ios. They put out two separate apps for their games for iPhone and iPad for years. And they charge $15-20 for games most companies charge $5-10. Including themselves. You'd spend $30ish bucks to buy FF Tactics War of the Lions on ios for devices, when the same game is $10 on PSN and downloadable on any compatible device with a single purchase. You don't HAVE to buy both, of course. But consumers holding off on purchases and providing feedback to the practice has lead them in recent years to adopt the Universal app model. FF IV AND after Yrs, FF V, VI, Dimensions, Dragon Quest VIII, really about everything after TWEWY Solo Edition has been a single app. Their customers expressed a desire for them to match the industry standard set forth by, basically, all of their competitors, and eventually they changed to meet this demand. Another example- Democracy 3 was a daily deal upon Steam for $7 and change. Someone pointed out that Gog was selling it for $4ish. YES to your point, there are many factors beyond price. I, myself, bought it on my iPad Mini for $10, because I wanted it portable. But someone pointing out the lower price point of a similar distribution service is helpful, not whining.

@dereq that sounds like reaching. Since account based games don't have any way to transfer content to other accounts, they can't take your games unless you are completely unable to recover your password. If they've hacked you to such a degree that they just now own your Steam or PSN account and related email account for verification, and (in Steam's case) possibly your cell phone for further verification...you have bigger problems than just which console you support,

They're a consumer business, in fact, quite a ruthless one when it comes to driving profits. They have investors and are on the stock market. Without revenue they blink out of existence.

If they are consistently losing potential revenue to a competitor they are duty bound to try and stop that. As nice at is to think Nintendo HQ is like Willy Wonka's Chocolate factory (being able to keep a bit of distance and their identity is one of their strengths) they don't exist in a bubble and they need customers so they need to know what customers want.

This isn't about infringing on the creative process, it's helping them by letting them know they're losing money because of a better deal elsewhere.

OK developers set the prices. I never denied that. But they're not on a level playing field across the formats as you yourself acknowledge. Whether it be licensing fees,Economies of scale,infrastructure or how the platform holders have driven their online marketplace.

As for the Account issue, come on. You're actually talking about identity theft there. There is security in place and there are ways of retrieving your accounts. You can insure your hardware all you want but if your Sony, Apple or Google hardware gets stolen, once the insurance pays out you can get your old digital purchases back. You'll be lucky if Nintendo even acknowledge you, let alone give you a penny back. Trust me, I've been there.

@Kisame83I see.We can agree the term "business practice" is very general. What a business charges for a product can be considered a business practice, I guess, especially if there's a consistent pattern to their strategy.

But I'd point out that a company's business practices include whole range what they do and what they don't do.

For example if a company owns a media company and consistently spreads negative rumors and biased negative opinion about it's competitors, that would be a factor to whether a consumer would want to financially support that kind of behavior or not. In that sense there's a little bit of personal ethics involved with decisions to buy from one company or another.

On the other hand if one company is consistently pushing the envelope for creating innovative gameplay and focusing on overall experience rather and staying away from the political campaign-style negative attacks on its competitors, then that again is a business practice that a consumer can decide to financially support or not via buying their products.

Does a few bucks outweigh some of the other worldly ethical issues? That is yet another consumer decision that they can weigh in on via their purchasing behavior.

@Sampras I assume you are talking about Sony? I won't disagree- they are not my primary choice. I have supported their portable devices, but I haven't owned their consoles since PS2. I'm not a fanboy of any particular console brand, but I did go Wii60 last gen and have essentially just "upgraded" this gen.

That said, I do think PSN is a progressive model for digital distribution. Xbox Live trades blows with them. eShop is still finding it's footing, though it has improved a great deal from its inception, and the old Dsi/Wiiware days.

I would like to see account systems, because it is basically the industry standard. Nintendo knows this, but doesn't have the model fully in place. Think of it this way- Iwata discussed how their research showed that people who made one digital purchase would often make more, realizing the convenience of digital downloads. They push this option nearly as hard as their competitors. But without that account system in place, this option is quite limiting. The only reason my son doesn't own his own 2DS is that most of my physical games are for me- titles I've pre-ordered or collected over the years. My five year old isn't going to be playing Devil Survivor Overclocked, SMT IV, Shinobi, etc anytime soon. So basically his options on a second system are Star Fox, and in another year Ocarina. On MY system, though, we picked up Sonic Lost World, Mario 3D Land, and a host of Virtual Console games (all the old school Zelda, Mario, and Mega Man a young gamer could ask for). He can only play this content on my 3DS, rendering the second purchase moot. That's money out of Nintendo's hands that I would otherwise throw at them.

In comparison, I'm thinking about getting the Playstation TV. I downloaded Rayman Origins digitally, have a few other games he plays via PS+ (some free, some from discounts), and some kid-friendly PS1 classics. All of this from my PSP and/or Vita, and most of it (barring touch screen heavy games that won't be compatible) will be ready for download as soon as I log in to my PSN account, no hassle.

@electrolite77 you are absolutely right. If I lose or break my Vita, my games are backed up with their backup program on my hard drive and the permissions are tied to my account. The only hassle is contacting a rep to deactivate the old system in favor of the new one. Same problems with a 3DS? You're going to need a Nintendo rep to specifically cater to your need (as the infrastructure of their service doesn't address this natively) and getting your software is going to be title by title. I make manual SD card saves, but that's mainly for the sake of save data.

@electrolite77 you're getting away from the original point that I think having a moan about it isn't going to make any difference. You obviously think it does and good luck to you, I don't think it does and nothing you've said so far has changed my mind. So we'll just have to agree to differ on this one.

Does anyone own the 3DS version? I looked around on the Miiverse for it and all the screen caps say they are in 3D, but there is no depth (almost like they had the slider off). Did they implement a full 3D effect for this version or is just a flat 2D game?

It's fairly silly to not allow you to use WiiMotes, Pro Controller, Classic Controller, or the GamePad for controls, especially if you're playing it up on the TV. I don't care about utilizing the touch screen as much as allowing for control options.